Grade 1
First Graders have a desire to learn.
Learning to be a cohesive class forms the basis of ‘we’, empathy and community.
Academics, arts and activities include:
- Language arts: letters and letter sounds, reading and writing
- Math: place value, concepts of addition and subtraction, shapes, time, money and measurement.
- Science: nature studies, foraging, land formations, systems of space, animal life cycles, habitats and ecosystems, 3 major systems in the body: heart, lungs and stomach
- Singing, percussion, flutes, nature walks, gardening, clay, painting, felting, weaving and knitting
Grade 2
Second graders have a desire to compare.
Learning to notice individual differences within the class forms the basis of tolerance and respect.
Academics, arts and activities include:
- Language arts: sentence structure, parts of speech, word study, letter writing
- Math: place value, addition and subtraction with renaming, shapes, time, money and measurement
- Science: natural resouces, Native American Studies, weather and its effect on the earth, solar systems, predators, prey and the food web, habitats and ecosystems, muscles and bone
- Singing, percussion, flutes, nature walks, gardening, clay, painting, felting, weaving, crocheting, and knitting and pearling
Grade 3
Third graders have a desire to separate, to distinguish themselves from others and their world.
Learning how others work in the practical world forms the basis of self-identity and building their ‘inner architecture’.
Academics, arts and activities include:
- Language arts: paragraph writing, narrative and character writing, cursive writing
- Math: multiplication tables, geometry and fractions
- Science: farming, food, shelter, local history and geography, rocks and minerals, magnets and electricity, animal adaptations, animal anatomy and senses
- Singing, percussion, flutes, nature walks, gardening, clay, painting, felting, weaving and knitting and building projects
Grade 4
Fourth graders have a desire to explore.
Learning fractions and spatial difference forms the basis of understanding wholeness, balance and eco-systems.
Academics, arts and activities include:
- Language arts: story structure and plot development, word origins, poetry
- Math: fractions, measurements, negative numbers
- Science: animal life sciences, local geography, earth’s electromagnetic field
- Singing, percussion, ensemble, nature walks, gardening, clay, painting, sewing and embroidery
Grade 5
Fifth graders have a desire to understand.
Learning the laws of nature forms the basis of objectivity, structure and reasoning.
Academics, arts and activities include:
- Language arts: essay writing
- Math: long division, percentage, graphs, Pythagorean theorem
- History and world geography, biographies and maps
- Science: botany, animal adaptations, US geography and ecosystems
- Singing, percussion, ensemble, nature walks, gardening, clay, painting, 4-needle knitting, whittling
